Glenmont fire is deadly

Firefighters rush in to try to save former truck driver in late-night blaze

Updated 9:23 pm, Thursday, February 21, 2013

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A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital after the fire was reported at 10:12 p.m. Wednesday. (Kristen Brown / Times Union) less

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center ... more

Image 2 of 11

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital after the fire was reported at 10:12 p.m. Wednesday. (Kristen Brown / Times Union) less

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center ... more

Image 3 of 11

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital after the fire was reported at 10:12 p.m. Wednesday. (Kristen Brown / Times Union) less

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center ... more

Image 4 of 11

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital after the fire was reported at 10:12 p.m. Wednesday. A family pet also died in the fire near the corner with Hartman Road. (Kristen Brown / Times Union) less

A 61-year-old man died in a house fire on Glenmont Road, police confirmed Thursday morning.
Brad Woodworth was found in the bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center ... more

BETHLEHEM — A former truck driver perished in a fire at his home Wednesday night.

Brad Woodworth, 61, was found dead inside his bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road after a fire about 10 p.m. Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

As flames engulfed the modest single-story home late Wednesday, firefighters rushed into the home to try to save Woodworth.

The blaze caused much of the roof to collapse and burned through the rear of the home. A family dog also died.

Selkirk Fire Department Chief Bill Asprion said late Wednesday firefighters found the one-story wood frame house engulfed in flames when they arrived. After receiving word that someone may have been inside, the chief said he had a crew enter the house to rescue the man before the fire spread even more.

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"We hit the house running and were able to get him out quickly," Asprion said.

The house was a total loss.

On Thursday, as investigators examined the scene, a mishmash of scorched furniture and other personal effects littered the lawn of the property at the corner of Hartman Road.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but authorities said it began in the kitchen, possibly the result of an electrical problem.

Bret Woodworth, the fire victim's brother, still in a daze from the loss, on Thursday remembered his brother as a "happy-go-lucky, jolly guy" who loved food, hunting and animals. He said Brad had been a truck driver, among other jobs, but was out of work on disability. Survivors include four other brothers and sisters; Woodworth's wife, Diana Woodworth; daughter Shauna Woodworth; and their father, Bret Woodworth said.

The death, said Woodworth, had been particularly hard on his 92-year-old father.

"You just move on the best you can," said Bret Woodworth, who last saw his brother last week when he visited the Glenmont Road house.

State Police confirmed Thursday that Brad Woodworth was investigated in connection with the nearly three-decades-old missing persons case of Karen Wilson. Senior Investigator David Madden, head of Troop G's Major Crimes Unit, said Brad Woodworth was one of hundreds of people investigated in the disappearance of Wilson, a 22-year-old UAlbany senior and state Assembly intern, after a shopping trip to Colonie Center on March 27, 1985.

"No connection was made directly from him to the missing Karen Wilson," said Madden.

State Police said, after the fire, Bethlehem police alerted troopers that the man involved may have been the same man associated with the Wilson case.

Bret Woodworth acknowledged his brother was investigated in the case. In the aftermath of his brother's death, he said, people should "let it rest. It's in the past."